Wednesday, December 24, 2008

HARRIMAN, Tenn. — Millions of yards of ashy sludge broke through a dike at TVA's Kingston coal-fired plant Monday, covering hundreds of acres, knocking one home off its foundation and putting environmentalists on edge about toxic chemicals that may be seeping into the ground and flowing downriver.

One neighboring family said the disaster was no surprise because they have watched the 1960s-era ash pond's mini-blowouts off and on for years.Advertisement

About 2.6 million cubic yards of slurry — enough to fill 798 Olympic-size swimming pools — rolled out of the pond Monday, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Cleanup will take at least several weeks, or, in a worst-case scenario, years.

Let’s see how the “clean coal” PR hucksters at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity try to spin this tragic news: a retention pond holding toxic coal ash slurry burst Monday in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing over half a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge that swept into the nearby town of Harriman and contaminated tributaries of the Tennessee River. The resulting flood damaged 15 homes, injured one man as it knocked his house off its foundations, and has left over 400 acres of land covered by several feet of coal ash, mud and contaminated water (see video below).

Coal ash and slurry is the normal byproduct of coal-fired electricity generating, and is usually stored in giant retaining ponds near coal plants. The resulting coal slurry is frequently contaminated by heavy metals, mercury and arsenic.

Yesterday’s tragedy struck at the coal ash impoundment associated with the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal-fired steam plant and released about 2.6 million cubic yards of slurry, the Tennessean reports. That’s enough to fill nearly 800 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and is over 40 times more contaminated sludge than the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The video bellow shows how big this really is. Check out this post for great coverage.

[Update 1: Now front page of the New York Times!][Update2 : bloomberg has followed up the question of the true cost of coal power]

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The CBI's position is set out in a new policy paper, "The future of coal: securing electricity supply and clean coal technology." New coal stations should be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage technology when it becomes available, which would cut carbon emissions, while ensuring that the country still meets its carbon targets, the CBI said.

The Department received over three quarters of a million claims from former miners, their widows, or their estates for COPD (592,000) and VWF (170,000). By the time all the claims have been settled, the Department estimates that it will have paid some £4.1 billion in compensation.

The schemes posed a formidable challenge. Many claimants were elderly, ill and anxious to receive their compensation. The number of claims greatly exceeded the Department’s initial forecasts of 173,000 COPD and 45,000 VWF claims. It was ill prepared for the number, and in some cases complexity, of claims made. Consequently some claimants have had to wait as long as ten years or more. In 2005, to address significant backlogs the Department, in negotiation with solicitors, introduced a fast track arrangement to process COPD claims. By September 2007, there were around 116,000 COPD claims and 12,000 VWF claims remaining to be settled. The Department is seeking to process most of the remaining VWF claims by March 2008 and COPD claims by February 2009.

The schemes were costly to administer. By completion, administration costs, including contractor and medical costs, are expected to total almost £2.3 billion. Claimants’ solicitors and other representatives’ fees account for just under £1.3 billion of this total. The Department’s negotiation of the fees with solicitors was weak, with the result that it paid fees significantly in excess of costs. Some solicitors have also levied additional fees on successful claimants.

And then there is the cost to peoples livelyhoods caused by climate change, and the loss of millions of species, and the threat to global peace and security. In fact you could say coal is cheap for eon but costly for society. Perhaps we should ban it and save our money, our planet and our health?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

baubles and suicide

Friday, December 19, 2008

A jury of one peer

The attorney General - the duly appointed, cabinet-ranking, partisan politician Baroness Scotland - is making plans to withdraw the protection of legal precedent from climate protestors who break the law in their stirling efforts to avert catastrophe. Suggestions that this is motivated by the Government's need to pretend it's all hunky-dory untill after the election are, of course, cynical in the extreme. Nothing to do with Heathrow and Gatwick and Kingsnorth etc etc. No ambitions were engaged in the making of these decisions.

This makes me smile...ministers making appologies about policing is a nice thing to see. But then again 5.9 million pounds on a peaceful camp is a pretty big fuck-up. Fingers crossed that will make a difference for future events.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The battle against coal continues. This time a coal rail terminal in South Lanarkshire is shut down.

In a statement, Coal Action Scotland appologised to workers but said that in the face of climate change they saw no alternatvie to targeting the companies involved in extraction of, what is after all, the most polluting fuel known to mankind.

Coal Action Scotland is part of the UK-wide Coal Action Network of individuals opposing the developments of a new generation of coal powered energy generation.

Prodipto Ghosh of the Indian delegation berated wealthy countries for their “refusal” to “experience a minuscule loss of profits” to help poorer nations cope. He continued: “In the face of the unbearable human tragedy that we in developing countries see unfolding every day, we see callousness, strategizing and obfuscation.

Weapons and Violence: at climate camp?

When the Camp for Climate Action rolled into Kingsnorth this year even veterans where suprised by the over the top policing. Being searched--often illigally-two or three times before getting onto site was quite common. This despite the history of the camp as a place of education, sustainable living which eschews physical violence...and our open meeting with our minutes online. It was quite clear that political policing to clamp down on the energy of a growing social movement was what we where seeing.

Despite this many in the media had no problem with reporting police claims of a weapons stash--it turns out that at the end of the operation no weapons where recorded in the list of confiscatred materials.

The Home Office has now admitted that the protesters had not been responsible for any injuries. In a three-line written answer to a parliamentary question, the Home Office minister Vernon Coaker wrote to the Lib Dem justice spokesman, David Howarth, saying: “Kent police have informed the Home Office that there were no recorded injuries sustained as a result of direct contact with the protesters.”

Only four of the 12 reportable injuries involved any contact with protesters at all and all were at the lowest level of seriousness with no further action taken.

I am increasingly impressed by the Lib Dem line on climate change. It seems that if there is any climate change event the Lib Dems are likely to be representing and certainly seem to be making it a key priority for the party.

Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP for Lewes, who had called previously for an investigation of police tactics, said: “I personally witnessed unnecessarily aggressive policing, unprovoked violence against peaceful protesters, an extraordinary number of police on site, and tactics such as confiscating toilet rolls, board games and clown costumes from what I saw to be peaceful demonstrators.”

Lib Dem justice spokesman made it clear why he thought the policing was so heavy:

Howarth said: “That the minister could defend as ‘proportionate’ a £5.9m policing operation in which there was not a single injury to police officers caused by the protesters beggars belief. The threat posed by environmental direct action is being systematically overblown by both the government and the police.

“I hope the government and the police will now stop trying to portray peaceful protesters as somehow equivalent to terrorists or violent extremists. In light of this new evidence, one has to ask, were climate campers so heavily policed because they posed any genuine threat of violence, or because they posed a challenge to government policy?”

Nick Thorpe, a spokesman for the climate camp, said: “Policing of peaceful protest has become increasingly heavy-handed. We saw thousands of officers swarming around a legal camp in a colossal waste of public money. The police and the government claimed there was a ‘violent minority’ of protesters but this Home Office admission reveals this as a complete fiction.”

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Flight of fancy, or a far-sighted protest?

One issue picked up by the media and now, looking like a handle for BAA to grab on to is class. Some members of plane stupid are from privaliged backgrounds, and that interests journalists for some reason. I`m not sure that this would be the worst thing in the world in normal times but in a receesion it really isnt what you want. It's easy to drive a wedge between those supposedly with the luxury of protest and those who need cheap air fairs and a strong economy.

Plane Stupid's activists train in protest techniques, such as padlocking themselves to things, so as she sat on the ground near Stansted's runway, Rosie Slay was not overly concerned for her safety, despite the bicycle D-lock attaching her to a fence by the throat. Safety is always a big consideration during the group's actions, she says.

The police had arrived shortly after the protesters, and were removing them one by one from their makeshift barricade, cutting some loose with bolt cutters. It still took more than two hours, to the demonstrators' delight, though Slay didn't delay the officers for as long as she had hoped - the police found the key to her lock on the grass.

Five days after the daring 3am action that shut down one of London's airports, cancelled 52 flights, disrupted thousands of passengers, amassed huge international publicity and prevented the equivalent damage, by Greenpeace's estimate, of 2,162 tonnes of CO2, the young activists of Plane Stupid have been reflecting on what they consider as the enormous success of their intervention.

"We were really, really happy as we were getting arrested," says Slay, 20, a student originally from Hackney, east London. "We had people on the phones talking to the media and as we got more and more information about the amount of coverage, we were really elated."

Coverage of Monday's protest, and the curiously polite radicals who staged it, has focused on their backgrounds as "toffee-nosed youngsters", a collection of supposedly spoiled rich kids with more time than insight.

Still essentially a student movement, there is no question that like most university campuses, Plane Stupid is more white and more middle class than the national demographic.

But the most striking common characteristic of those who took part in the protest is their unwavering conviction, which is compelling.

Josh Moos, who like Slay is a student at Sussex University, is at 21 almost an elder statesman of the group, having been involved with the campaign since shortly after it was set up three years ago. He used to be "an armchair environmentalist", he says, but "I realised from further reading that climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. All further issues are of course important but they all become subjugated to the issue of climate change."

His unofficial role during the runway occupation was to reassure the newer campaigners. The group also provides training in techniques for resisting arrest, media skills and advice on how to deal with your parents.

In total, 54 people were arrested on the taxiway at Stansted, along with a further three as they attempted to leave. Dan Glass, one of the group's leading figures in Scotland, came south to participate with 14 other "affiliates" in Monday's action, but only two chose to get arrested on the runway. The rest preferred to keep their noses clean in anticipation of potential future protests at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports.

Last summer Glass, 25, hit the headlines after supergluing himself to Gordon Brown. He rejects the middle class tag, particularly when applied to those living in the poor Glasgow suburbs campaigning against the expansion of the city's airport: "Fifteen percent of the population never even fly, and many of them live in Clydebank, where they are really affected by Glasgow airport. In Scotland the demographic of people involved includes a lot of people who are really economically marginalised," he says.

While some have characterised the action as that of "militant environmentalists", the group argues that what is seen today as dangerously radical will one day be accepted. "We are definitely on the radical end of the spectrum and that is where we wish to be," says Moos. "Visionaries are initially seen as radical before the mainstream catches up with them and accepts their policies."

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Climate Protestors: Creating There Own Aviation Tax?

For various legal reasons taxing aviation isn't an easy thing to do. Thats a shame as even the British govornment acknowledge the importance of the polluter pays principal.

Now, it looks like climate change activists are getting around the problems of official taxation by levying a de facto security tax.

Tarmac incursions are particularly difficult to police because airports have huge surface areas. “The amount of time and money you would have to put into perimeter security is enormous,” an expert said. “Some airports are spending 40 percent of their entire budget on security, and that number is going to go up.” The additional cost would “undoubtedly” be paid for by the traveling public, he said. Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/12/09/ap5799498.html

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Aviation and Confiscations (Stansted Airport Shut Down)

After participating and a direct action against aviation organised by Plane Stupid I ended up in a police cell being charged with agrevated tresspass. Then I returned home to find that eight police officers had searched my room and the comunal areas of the house. Apparently they left at 2:50am!

In my absence they decided to take my printer, my mobile phone, all of the leaflets on my wall, my notes for a report i`m writing, my camcorder, all my credit cards, my membership of Kew gardens and a few other things. If my laptop where in my room it sure as hell wouldnt be here for me to post this with.

The action at Stansted was inevitably going to lead to arrests and we where prepared for that: this was my first time in a police cell. The experiance in custody was actually pretty good, and it was great fun listening to the Jeremy Vine show on bbc radio 2 (the uk's most popular radio station) which lated around 20 minutes and was overall a very good discussion of why we risked personal arrest and upsetting the public. I must say right now I feel like i have been robbed. What does a camcorder or a printer have to do with a direct action against Stansted: preciesly nothing.

However, i shouldnt dwell to much on what the police where doing while I was out the building as I was doing something far more important. It's great not to have to look back rosy eyed on the sixties and the civil rights movement. We have something of similar importance, arguably greater, and this fight against catastrophic climate change is happening now. Such movements are never recognised as the moral forces that they are untill after the change they are pushing for has been achieved. The militant Suffragettes where not politically acceptable at the time and where widel derided but now you will be hard pushed to find someone willing to criticise them. Well, that thought helps when sitting in police cells or in a room with half it's contents gone.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The UK is about to test drive 3,000 smart refrigerators that will know when to adjust their power use to match the needs of the grid. The fridges could mean both a massive cost savings and a boost to alternative energy use.

Refrigerators are big energy suckers and we’re always on the watch for more efficient models and tips on how to reduce their energy use. But if a fridge gets a brain, it can do all the adjusting needed to reduce its carbon footprint without us having to lift a finger.

The fridges, supplied by RLtec, are going to be given away by the UK government next year for a trial run to see how well the dynamic demand technology used in the fridges works.

Interesting little piece in Treehugger, just makes me wonder a. what the hell are we waiting for and b. how much scale do related technologies have. Using fridges nationwide there would be significant scope for saving but i`m sure that using industry and other applicances together the scale could be even larger....tastes like the future to me.

RLtec estimates that large numbers of appliances running with dynamic demand technology would create a "virtual power station" that could displace coal-fired generators. For example, fitting all the fridges in the UK with dynamic demand technology would allow the decommissioning of a 750-megawatt "back-up" power station.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Basing policies and capaigns on outdated information is not likely to lead to positive outcomes. Thats where this report comes in.

The ‘Climate Safety’ report gives a simple summary of the latest science, delivering a clear message that to have any chance of maintaining a safe climate, we must rapidly decarbonise our society, preserve global sinks, and address the problem with an unprecedented degree of seriousness.

Even with a commitment to 80% carbon cuts by 2050, “Climate Safety” warns that our current policy response does not match up to the scale of the challenge.

Get you climate science knowledge bang up to date with this report by well respected UK group PIRC. I think that George Monbiot's puts it better than i could:

“You cannot overstate the importance of this report: it has opened my eyes to levels of climate risk far beyond those of which I was aware. Crisp, clear-headed and profoundly shocking, this report should be read immediately by everyone who cares.”

For the third day in a row EON UK's headqauters in coventary where protested. This was the riskiest and boldest action so far and i was glad to be there...certainly made for a superb day off work! A really good group of people, organised without the police finding out prior to the event.

A lanky Santa looking suspiciously like me helps a couple of climbing Santas up onto the revolving door. It isnt easy to get people down from such places if they dont want to come down.

Santas take up position and prevent anyone getting into EON we test our accesibility policy with the help of an injured santa who is using a weelchair, she got on fine. The doors are shut with coal bags and people glued to doors .